He's Not Worthy
by Deacon Blues
"He was the founder of ISIS, absolutely."
--More Trump ass-hattery, today, on CNBC
Whether it’s the overt threat of post-election violence with his “Second Amendment” quip, or his newest, elementary-school taunt that Obama and Clinton founded ISIS themselves, I’ve decided that Donald Trump’s daily juvenile utterances aren’t worth my time or attention. This sophomoric buffoon, by his own admission, feels that because his shtick so far has worked with his low-IQ base, he doesn’t need to do anything differently. And since he sees no need to reach beyond his base in the general election, we can rest assured that Trump will deliver weeks and weeks of stupidity between now and November.
Which makes my experience yesterday all the more deflating. I was privy to an exclusive briefing on the 2016 race by a nationally-known political handicapper, one who has his name in his “political report”. This expert spent about 30 minutes giving our group an insider’s briefing on the race, wherein we were told that despite Hillary’s current lead in the national polls, we should expect the race to tighten, even into a tie towards Election Day, because this election is so different and the two presidential nominees are so unpopular. We were also told that the Democrats had no chance to take back the House, and at best would only pull into a 50-50 time in the Senate. Alas, this is what passes for expert political analysis today.
This “analysis” such as it were, is total crap for several reasons. First, all of the recent national polls show that the race has already settled into hardened camps, where polls consistently show that the number of remaining undecided voters is already down to between 3-8 points depending on the poll. Second, these same polls show that even though both candidates are very unpopular, only one candidate is also viewed as extremely unqualified for the job. So for this race to narrow to an even split sometime before Election Day, with so few undecided voters remaining, large blocks of Hillary voters would have to switch their support to Trump and suddenly find him qualified to be commander in chief. And I seriously doubt African Americans and Latino voters will be doing so.
Given Trump’s admission that he doesn’t plan to change what he’s doing, and given that many Hillary supporters have already made up their minds to support her despite her negatives, how likely is it that this race would narrow to an even split in the coming weeks?
Exactly; it’s not likely at all.
Update: Oh, the irony of Trump accusing Hillary of creating ISIS:
One person who did focus on the threat of Islamic terrorism in Iraq after a U.S. troop withdrawal was Hillary Clinton, whom Trump has also described in recent days as a “founder” of ISIL.
As a candidate for president in 2008, Clinton cautioned about leaving the country too quickly. In a March 2008 speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, Clinton warned that “we cannot allow Iraq to become a breeding ground and safe haven for terrorists,” adding that her withdrawal plan “will not mean retreating from fighting terrorism in Iraq.”
“That’s why I will order small, elite strike forces to engage in targeted operations against Al Qaeda in Iraq,” Clinton added.
U.S. officials say Clinton repeated those concerns during meetings of Obama’s national security team, siding with military officials who wanted to preserve a residual troop force in Iraq beyond 2011, even if it numbered only in the few thousands. Clinton’s viewpoint was overruled by the White House.
But the facts don't matter to Trump.